python: access NS api

Question

For a side project I'm trying to do some analyses on the NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen) data via the NS api.

strangely, getting the station info from http://webservices.ns.nl/ns-api-avt?station=Dordrecht works perfectly, but trying to get all stations from http://webservices.ns.nl/ns-api-stations results in a HTTPError.

Works:

import urllib2
from xml.etree import ElementTree
import datetime, time, sys

theurl = 'http://webservices.ns.nl/ns-api-avt'
username = 'username'
password = 'password'

passman = urllib2.HTTPPasswordMgrWithDefaultRealm()
passman.add_password(None, theurl, username, password)

authhandler = urllib2.HTTPBasicAuthHandler(passman)

opener = urllib2.build_opener(authhandler)

urllib2.install_opener(opener)

specificURL = 'http://webservices.ns.nl/ns-api-avt?station=Dordrecht'

xmlHandle = urllib2.urlopen(specificURL)

Does not work:

theurl = 'http://webservices.ns.nl/ns-api-avt'
username = 'username'
password = 'password'

passman = urllib2.HTTPPasswordMgrWithDefaultRealm()
passman.add_password(None, theurl, username, password)

authhandler = urllib2.HTTPBasicAuthHandler(passman)

opener = urllib2.build_opener(authhandler)

urllib2.install_opener(opener)

specificURL = "http://webservices.ns.nl/ns-api-stations"

xmlHandle = urllib2.urlopen(specificURL)

The two routines are identical, but yield different results. Am I missing something?

The Error code:

File "stations.py", line 32, in <module>
    xmlHandle = urllib2.urlopen(specificURL)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 127, in urlopen
    return _opener.open(url, data, timeout)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 410, in open
    response = meth(req, response)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 523, in http_response
    'http', request, response, code, msg, hdrs)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 448, in error
    return self._call_chain(*args)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 382, in _call_chain
    result = func(*args)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 531, in http_error_default
    raise HTTPError(req.get_full_url(), code, msg, hdrs, fp)
urllib2.HTTPError: HTTP Error 401: Unauthorized

Answer 1

(partially) Solved

A code, as simple as:

import requests
url = 'http://webservices.ns.nl/ns-api-stations-v2'
username = 'username'
password = 'password'
print(requests.get(url, auth=(username, password)).content)

works! For both the urls. Strange that the other way did not work for both, but only for one.